"The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s passage of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is another critical step toward restoring American competitiveness and energy independence. Clean-energy jobs and pollution reduction legislation would turbo charge investments in the clean-energy technologies of the future that China, Germany, and others are already manufacturing.
This bill would create millions of U.S. jobs, increase American energy independence, and cut the pollution that will lead to more disease, floods, and droughts that would cost billions of dollars if left unchecked.
Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) leadership was essential to this success. The Republican’s boycott of all three committee meetings was an attempt to use lack of analysis to cause paralysis, and it was an unfounded and poorly disguised attempt to block action. No other energy bill has received near the same level of analysis at this stage in the legislative process.
We applaud the decision to pass the bill in the Environment Committee today despite Republican intentions to stall and defeat the bill. With today’s action, the debate over our economic future will move forward to the Senate Finance and Agriculture Committees. Hopefully, Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) will act promptly to address their portions of this legislation so that the entire Senate can consider and pass clean-energy jobs legislation early next year."
CAPAF energy experts Daniel J. Weiss and Bracken Hendricks are available for comment. To speak with them, please contact Suzi Emmerling at [email protected] or 202-481-8224.
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